Holidays are the best time of year, especially for the brands because they need to prepare for the biggest shopping period of their year. For Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and other holidays round the year, publishers and advertisers need to be careful to turn this vacation time for their customers into a profitable time of the year.
Here are some suggestions that might help make the holidays better:
Check out last year’s holiday status and make your plan
First, you should take a look at the previous year’s sales. Evaluate the paid placement, average order values, return and the drill down into the particular promotion that ran.
Then consider this year’s sales to judge the market. Identify your new partners using this year’s data. From this data, you can make a full-proof plan fora successful holiday season.
Think beyond Cyber Monday or Black Friday
Don’t stay chained to Black Friday or Cyber Monday only. Build promotions around Free Shipping Day on December 15 or Single’s Day on November 11, and use the affiliates to drive traffic in-store for the Super Saturday, the 23rdof December. Think of new ways to incentivize consumers during the non-peak holidays of the year.
Discuss the holiday goal with Partners
Plan the special promotions, offers, and sales, which your brand will run throughout the fourth quarter. Discuss your plans with the partners and publishers.
Different publishers adapt to new methods of distribution, which include themed newsletters, banners, and paid placements to provide good exposure for your promotion. Arrange strategic meetings and explain the plans. Plan everything early so that you can secure the rate possible now. You can also consider strategic tactics like a temporary commission boost. This way, your publishers will be more into the promotions of your product, expecting a better figure.
Nurture the relation that you’ve built so far
Usually, publishers use the first 3 quarters of the year to build up a professional and profitable relationship. Nurture those relationships that took you this long to build up. Offer a flat fee or increase the commission on sales. This way, they will believe and realize that you really care about your partners.
Apart from maintaining a good relationship with the publishers, it is important not to forget your customers for whom you are doing all this. Offer them free shipping or an attractive discount on the special occasions. If you don’t know what drives customers, you can discuss it with your publishers. They’ll know what to do and then you can plan accordingly.
Ensure you have a balanced publisher portfolio and test relationships
Try out new promotions and publishers and test how everything is going before the holidays. You can collaborate with bloggers to push the winter and fall sales.
Prepare Well
Let your publishers know before you start arranging the promotions. Remember, if your rush with the promotions, it’ll be a disaster. Plan everything from notifying the publishers to managing the promotion period.
And finally, let your customers know what you’ve planned for them. Once you are done with everything, brace yourself to get a peak on the annual sales.
